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| An American Abroad |
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It's a very exciting day here at Chateau Hugo-Vidal, because Virginia, aka Youngest, is coming home from the Netherlands on winter break! You may recall she got into her dream grad program in The Hague, and has been there since the beginning of September (after kindly taking care of me for a month post-knee replacement.) She didn't come home for Christmas because she wanted to both travel and bring the Million Dollar Cat back with her, so she spent New Year's in Berlin and Vienna before taking the long flight home (Amsterdam to Boston via Reykjavik.)
Having my child at school overseas makes me think of my own experience going to college in London back in '82-'83. Honestly, technology has changed things so much, it feels two different centuries.
Wait - it is two different centuries. Well, you know what I mean. Except for the fact I flew across the Atlantic instead of sailing, I'm pretty sure my time in Europe had more in common with a young woman traveling in 1924 than in 2024. For instance:
Paper tickets. I had my return Christmas time flight when left the US in August, and I lived in terror of that physical ticket somehow getting lost. Of course, I bought Virginia's tickets online, and she's using her Icelandair app to access them (along with weather reports, delay notifications, etc. etc.) At least the paper tickets didn't display ads.
Traveling across Europe. There were flights, obviously, but in the early eighties they were well out of the reach of students. At least, students whose parents had them on a budget. I traveled everywhere via rail, using my Eurailpass. I have no idea what it cost, but boy, it had to have been a bargain considering how many miles I put on it. Virginia, on the other hand, took advantage of one of the many discount airlines and flew to Austria. My nephew is going to university in Athens, and he's flown on every trip he's taken in the past two years. I love me some trains, but I have to admit I could have skipped sitting up all night while going from Rome to Paris.
Speaking of budgets: American Express Traveler's Cheques. Yes, there is a certain romance to the whole "stopping at the American Express office for your mail" thing. But I was convinced I'd lose my wallet (it was always happening in the commercials!) and would suffer the embarrassment of being the Yankee tourist who needed replacements. I wasn't any more organized then than I am now, and thinking back, I'm boggled my parents trusted me with what was essentially a booklet worth $2000. Everything is electronic for Virginia - in fact, she says the Netherlands are close to being cash-free.
Cash! The euro was only a vague idea in some idealist's minds when I was going to school. Every new country I went, I had to stop into a cambio to trade Traveler's Cheques for marks, lira, francs, and pounds. Ans then, of course, at the end of my year abroad, I had a weird assortment of different currencies that always seemed to be just under the amount an American bank would accept.
Of course, possibly the biggest difference is communication. Before my term started in England, I took part in an archaeological dig in Tuscany and then traveled around Italy and southern France for a total of six weeks, during which time I sent exactly zero postcards or letters home. My poor mother! I was better once I had settled into my London lodgings, and wrote a dutiful weekly letter on crinkly onionskin airmail stationery. I called home twice in the fall semester; one for my brother's birthday, and then again when I had to let my parents know I had missed my Christmastime flight from Heathrow to New York. (The conversation went like this - Mom: Hello? Me: Pass the phone to Dad.)
Meanwhile, Virginia texts with me and her siblings almost daily, and we've had loads of video calls using WhatsApp (highly recommended.) I'm so grateful I didn't have to go through what my mom did (plus, I have no doubt Virginia will make her flight home with time to spare.)
There's one thing was was decidedly better back in the day - when I left and when I returned, my folks were waiting for me right by the gate as I came off the plane. (Those of you under the age of 30 or so will find this astonishing.) In 2025, I'll be circling Terminal E, waiting for my daughter to clear customs. But we'll be just as happy reuniting as my parents and I were.
How about you, dear readers? What are your travel memories from a bygone age? And what's better now?
How exciting to have Virginia home for a bit . . . I'm sure it will be wonderful!
ReplyDeleteSuper looking forward to it, Joan!
DeleteJulia, does your airport have a cell phone lot? That would save you from endlessly circling the terminal. And how wonderful to have Virginia home for a visit! Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteIt does!
DeleteThanks, Edith, I didn't know that!
DeleteSee, Julia, 2025 technology is making travel (and picking up the traveler) even easier!
DeleteI remember all that, Julia and more. In the early 1970's, a friend and I spent the whole summer in Europe, traveling on a Eurail pass, staying in pensionnes, using the book Europe on $10 a Day. This summer, Irwin and I are going to Greece for 2 weeks. Let's just say, "It will be different."
ReplyDeleteNo shared toilets at our age, Judy!!
DeleteEnjoy Virginia's visit. I know you've been so looking forward to it!
ReplyDeleteWhat has changed most for me is long-distance calls and the cash thing: When I was a student in college, living in a rooming house, my brother and his wife were in UK and then Germany, and I had to use the pay phone in the hall - a tedious affair of nickels, dimes, quarters, or reversed charges. Flash forward 30 years to when my husband and I started traveling: Traveler's checks. I don't even remember now when those disappeared. It all is so much easier now, for sure.
Oh, I recall those calls to the US, Elizabeth; clunking in one pound coins until the operator was satisfied!
DeleteHow happy for you to have all your children home for your late family Christmas!
ReplyDeleteI have never been a traveler. My husband has always traveled extensively. Though I certainly remember the hassle of purchasing traveler's checks, for me the huge change is communication. He used to leave for seven to nine weeks and typically I'd hear from him by postcard from whatever airport he landed at and then... silence. (He was/is? a hobby mountaineer who would be in inaccessible places.)
The worst was the summer of 1992 when he was climbing Denali. I was home with our five year old. At that time there was no television where we live -- the mountains cut off reception and cable didn't stretch seven miles out of town. The NYT arrived days late. And that summer there was a record number of deaths on Denali -- 11, all unidentified by the Times. It was very, very stressful.
Now he can text me from all over the world. (Selden)
Oh, Selden, that sounds SO scary! Yes, being able to stay in contact from almost anywhere in the world is an amazing development that we don't even think about until we compare it to the past.
DeleteThat sounds horrible, Selden.
DeleteMy tiny middle daughter has gone rock climbing and backpacking all over the world by herself. At one point I insisted she get a satellite phone.
A friend in her 60's was hiking alone this past summer, and got back to her car in a very isolated spot, near dark, only to find that it wouldn't start. She had no choice but to start walking. It could have been a disaster, since she was 30 miles from the nearest town, and no cell service, but a female ranger happened by. She had to leave her car, but al least she didn't have to spend the night in it, on a deserted mountain, alone, and with no food or water. Close call.
Yes, I remember using AMEX traveler's cheques on my solo 2 month trip to Europe in the 1980s. No Euro, so every country had its own currency. I did not have a credit card. And I mailed dozens of postcards to my parents to let them know where I was.
ReplyDeleteNow, I use a WISE card on int'l travel, including when I go to the US. It automatically converts the currency at a much lower rate & no foreign transactions fees than using credit cards.
And yes, my airplane boarding pass is on my phone. I have Air Canada, Porter, United and EVA AIR airline apps. Very handy & the apps send real time msgs about gate changes or delays.
Wow, Grace: The WISE card is new to me. What a great thing!
DeleteWISE is an int'l debit card. You load money from your bank account. There's both a physical WISE card to use at ATMs and an app. I also put the digital WISE card in my phone's Google Wallet for online/contactless payments. So easy to use.
DeleteGrace, I'm going to look at WISE with Virginia. She's had difficulties with having to use her Dutch bank card and her American card. Maybe a one-size-fits-all would work well for her.
DeleteI’ve heard a lot about WISE from ex-pats in France using it to pay utilities or as an option after their French bank drops them. Glad to hear positive reviews from someone I trust.
DeleteWISE is not the best option fior USA residents. Debit cards have much less legal protection in The US and internationally.
DeleteThe better option is a travel credit card, with no transaction fees for different currencies.
Put everything on the credit card. Avoid banks and their fees and rules. You earn a lot of free flights too.
Capital One has at least two great travel cards.
Just like in the US, I pay for everything including utilities, mortgage and all bills with a credit card.
Unlike the US, Canada does not many credit cards with zero transaction fees.
DeleteI mainly used WISE for free ATM cash withdrawals & smaller daily tranactions.
Yes, bigger purchases such as airplane tickets & hotels are on my credit card.
And you can freeze your WISE card quickly and they reimburse any dodgy transactions almost immediately. I also link it to a separate bank account with a small balance, not my main banking accounts.
How lovely she'll be home for a bit!
ReplyDeleteYes, my travel experiences were the same as yours, Julia. When I lived (at age 17) in Brazil for a year in 1970, I didn't call home once. Way too expensive for our family, but we used up a heck of a lot of that blue airmail stationery.
Also hitchhiking. I left a tour group when I was in northern Japan alone in 1976 and hitched a ride back down the mountain. Hitchhiked home to CA from Michigan one summer. I don't think anybody does that any more.
Whatsapp is amazing! When I was in Japan last spring I could call Hugh every day, and I can also have video chats with Ida Rose when we're apart for a few weeks. Also in Japan in April I went into a convenience store and got cash from my credit card from a multi-lingual machine (despite all Japan's hi-tech, including the most complicated computer-run toilets, it's very much a cash money economy). All the taxi drivers had little translation devices. Many changes.
Agreed, WhatsApp is heavily used in Asia. I contacted my hotel and chatted with my Singapore friends cheaply. And Google Translate app on my phone was handy to read food menus & other signs written in Chinese, Hindi/Tamil etc.
DeleteWhatsApp is wonderful. What really drove the end-to-end encryption home to me was when I was texting my oldest using our regular AT&T text, discussing a specific Christmas present... and then noticed ads for that exact same product started following me around on the internet and Instagram!
DeleteFrance, 1977: no phone calls home, though loads of airmail-paper letter sent home. It was a wonderful time of being myself without burden of family connections. I grew a lot as my own person. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteJulia, enjoy Virginia being home (and then taking the Million Dollar Cat with her)...
I'll be weeping as they depart... (tears of joy!)
DeleteJulia, you bring back memories of a very happy (if occasionally lonely) time for me. It was 1975-76, not 1982-83, when I lived and in Stockholm for nine months and then traveled around Sweden, and in Paris, London, Leningrad, Moscow, and other parts of the USSR (I took the Trans-Siberian railway and got out along the way), and ended up staying for two months in Tokyo. But it was all just as you describe: paper tickets, AmEx traveler's checks and cash, not plastic, long-distance phone calls every couple of months from a post office calling booth, and letters sent on special airmail paper that folded up into an envelope with a stamp. One thing I'm very grateful for today is that suitcases are so much lighter weight and have excellent handles and wide wheels. I lugged my heavy suitcase with a year's worth of stuff literally around the world (although at least it was in an airplane luggage compartment from Japan back to the US!)
ReplyDeletewow, you had an amazing adventure! (those suitcases were a nightmare!)
DeleteI did, Roberta! It was a wonderful time right after college when I didn't think about the future and just did what I wanted to do. I even worked for four months in a Saab factory building car engines--and made money! Even then, I recognized that I was very, very lucky to be able to go off and have adventures for a year instead of having to go right to work.
DeleteOh, those huge suitcases! I feel like they must have worked up to the 1960s - when I traveled as a child, my mother always had red caps taking care of her bags. But somehow, that died away in the 1970s, leaving all of us lugging the first cousin of steamer trunks around. The invention of the four-wheeled suitcase may be the peak of human achievement, as far as I'm concerned.
DeleteHear, hear!
DeleteEnjoy your visit with Virginia and your other kids!
ReplyDeleteLast fall we were on a small boat traveling the Dalmatian coast. The boat had enough wi-fi for our son to FaceTime with good news. Unexpected, but why not? Then I returned to texting one photo a day so the kids would know we were fine.
Of course, when our millennial kids travel, we're lucky to get a call as they're boarding an airplane. "Hey Mom, headed for Italy. I'll call when we're back in two weeks."
And that's not bad, either, Margaret! I told Virginia I didn't expect her to stay in touch at any regular time, and, I'm happy to say I didn't hear from her at all while she was traveling through Berlin and Vienna - I took that to mean she was too busy having a good time.
DeleteJulia, enjoy your Christmas celebration with the kids and their loved ones! And you know you'll miss the Million Dollar Cat when he's gone! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI literally just put a bunch of my sweaters into the dryer on fluff cycle to try to get rid of the white cat hairs clinging thickly to them, Flora...
DeleteJulia, I feel your pain. W/5 cats, trying to keep youngest nephew's 'good' clothes looking good for his performances is a constant chore.
DeleteI love this Julia, it's exactly right!! Except I never would have missed the flight--too homesick. Welcome home Virginia!
ReplyDeleteI actually missed TWO flights on two consecutive days, Lucy. My family never let me forget it.
DeletePoints for consistency.
DeleteI'm glad Virginia gets to come home! My memories are similar to yours. I studied in the UK for 6 months in 1978 and then traveled in Europe for about 6 weeks longer before coming home. In the basement I still have piles of the three-fold airletters I received and sent while I was gone. My dad told me I should get a job writing the Lord's Prayer on postage stamps, because I tried to use every bit of the space on those letters and my handwriting was difficult for aging eyes. At the time, I had no sympathy!
ReplyDeleteOne friend had a Visa card (which she couldn't find one night at a train station in Germany, the angst!) but it was generally travelers' checks or cash. We had Britrail passes that we used and used and used. My aunt was living in Leeds, so I visited her a couple of times. We hitchhiked some as well, which felt pretty safe in Scotland (we got a dinner invitation from one lovely couple) and not so safe in France. In the UK, we actually found the occasional old red phone box that let us make overseas phone calls (for 5P, I think?) and actually connected. After that happened, we tried all the old phone boxes when we were out and about. I don't think I ever talked to my family, but others did. So yes, communication with home is way easier now.
It was, in many ways, a lovely way to travel, wasn't it? It forced you to be creative and figure out how to get information, that's for sure!
DeleteJulia, enjoy your family time! All mine will be here, starting tomorrow, so I share your joy. It's the best, having the far-flung crew together.
ReplyDeleteOne of my aunts was married to a Navy CPO who went away on a sub for six months a year, starting in the brand-new state of Hawaii where the family lived. One was married to a diplomat who was stationed in Australia, England, and Dakar. Another aunt's husband was working on a nuclear reactor in rural Argentina for five years. This was all in the 1960's and beyond, when air mail was just about the only communication option. It was always a great day to get a heavily scrawled, both sides, translucent onionskin letter from Aunt Bobbie, or Aunt Rosie, or Aunt Phyllis. It would take them days to travel, too. When they got to the airport, usually in 40+ miles away Cincinnati, they'd call Grandpa (collect, because it was long distance then) for someone to come and get them. Before the interstate, so that could take a couple hours each way.
Julia, what about luggage? Even when I went to Europe for the first time in 2001 we had to carry our suitcases, hardly anyone had wheelies. If they did, there were so few handicapped cuts on curbs, and elevators are still so small--like in my daughter's postwar apartment building in Athens--that barely two people could squeeze in at a time, so we had to haul them up usually narrow steps. Also in 2001, the Eurozone was in the near future, but we still had to exchange francs for liras.
Both my younger kids went abroad for a semester, Bangkok and Sydney (they both had full academic scholarships). It was nerve-wracking to try to Skype with Robin at midnight our time while it was noon in Thailand, and we could only manage it twice in five months. By the time her sister got to Australia a couple years later communication was already better. However, she spent a break traveling alone in Thailand, and I nearly had a heart attack when I heard about some of her adventures.
My kids also use WhatsApp, but among the family we use Voxer together, which is pretty much the same thing, just not owned by Zuckerberg.
When Steve and I were dating, and in our early marriage, he traveled for six months of the year (total, not consecutively), just as his father had in the 1940's until he retired in 1981. Long distance was expensive, so calls were limited. Which is why my father-in-law arrived home in August of 1949 to find a huge banner on the front of the house proclaiming "Welcome home, Steve & Dave". He had not known his pregnant wife had delivered not one, but two sons. We did a bit better communicating than that!
DeleteOh, my lord, imagine finding out your wife had twins when you arrive home! Yes, it is possible to communicate better than that...
DeleteI used the call collect method when I was at college in the states - I was only about an hour and a half away from home, but of course, it was long distance back then. I'd call home reverse charges and ask for myself. My dad would say, "She's not here," and then call me direct, so I didn't have to keep loading the pay phone with coins!
Sounds like me and my sister in high school. If one of us had to stay late for an activity, we’d call collect and the one at home would refuse and know it was time for the pick-up.
DeleteWhat I remember is trying to "phone home" from Europe, summer of 1969. We had to go to a post office where there were special international phones, equip ourselves with enough change (it was expensive and short) and deal with the language barrier. Jerry and I were on our 2-month honeymoon ("Europe on $5 a day - we did it) while my mother was hospitalized in New York and we needed to let my family know we were okay and ... was she? Cell phones are small miracles for travelers with ailing relatives.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! My nephew had an accident (no serious harm done) and was able to call his parents to let them know. That let my sister deal with his student insurance in real time.
DeleteIn 1972, I was finishing university in Regina, and needed to get back to Nova Scotia. Air Canada, and CN were very expensive, and for some reason I could not afford to go to Australia (thought it would be a good idea), but there was a ‘ticket’ to see the USA, any number of flights to anywhere for 30 days, for $50! Can’t beat that! So, I took the train to Vancouver, Victoria, across to Seattle (customs thought I must have been a drug mule – what a mess they made to my luggage), and so began my trip. The gimmick was that all flights were on small airlines, and often required going stand-by, and not in any sort of a straight line. No problem, they served food then. I had many flight schedule booklets with me, and a general idea of where I would go, what I would see, and for maybe how long. Accommodation was arranged after I arrived – usually Y’s or hostels. I did it alone. I can’t believe that my parents let me, or that I was so daring. I saw lots of places, did lots of things, and ate not as much as I would have liked as there was not the budget for expensive meals. I was fine until almost the end of the time line and I was in Miami Beach, when suddenly all I wanted was to go home, so skipped all the eastern seaboard, bundled off to Boston, then Halifax and home.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I think I had travelers’ cheques, but I can’t remember cashing them, tho I know I did carry American cash. I had to be careful, because all the money was green, and it was hard to tell a $1bill from a $100! I doubt that I had a credit card. It must be difficult to keep track of your spending in your head when all is on the app. A $20 bill in your pocket means that is all you have to spend. End of.
As for keeping in touch, I wrote long epistles on the onionskin paper and sent them home. This let my parents know where I was, and would become a diary of my trip. It is in the memories collection of letters somewhere. I imagine that should I find it, and read it, if my hair was not already grey, it soon would be. The photos that I took were of course on film. I had a bunch of those mail-away developing envelopes and would tuck in the roll of film, mail it off and saw them when I got home. I wonder how I paid for them?
Enjoy your family together.
I remember now how I let people know I was allright. I used the old university trick of calling home and asking to talk with myself, and then somehow told the operator that the caller (me) was in San Francisco. Message given.
ReplyDeleteMargo, I did the same thing when traveling in the US!
DeleteI didn't really travel internationally when I was younger - couldn't afford to study abroad or globe-hop.
ReplyDeleteThe closest I got was being sent to Puerto Rico/USVI to do disaster relief in late 1995. But I do remember sweet-talking my way into the BVI for New Year's Eve on nothing but a photocopy of my birth certificate. I am quite sure that would not happen today!
Sometimes I tell my kids what flying could be like pre-9/11 and they can't believe. I remember arriving at the airport twenty minutes before my flight took off - and I made it!
DeleteSo happy Youngest is coming home for your Christmas gathering, Julia. The stories you’ll all have. I spent my junior year spring semester in Grenoble way back in ‘74. Everything was paper, airmail letters home, bulky suitcases without wheels. I shared a large room in a hotel with 3 other girls in our program. I traveled with a friend on our Easter vacation, and then had a week traveling on my own. I was often homesick but loved being in France, England, Switzerland, and Germany. Learning how to do things all by myself, and enjoying time with friends. Traveler’s Cheques, cameras, student rail passes… Sitting at cafés for a long time just talking and people watching. So many wonderful memories. Does time really flow differently when we aren’t connected all the time?
ReplyDeleteI feel as if perhaps we grew more, Suzette, when we weren't connected and had to rely on information kiosks, strangers, bed and breakfast bulletin boards and maps to get around.
DeleteWhile I was In college, my political science teacher corralled a bunch of students to greet Gerald Ford, then Minority Leader of the House, at Scottsbluff International Airport in Nebraska. Ford's landing was significantly delayed because they couldn't get the deer off the runway.
ReplyDeleteThat’s so funny! I can’t get that image out of my mind!
DeleteDebRo
Those were the days!
DeleteSafari planes, at least in Kenya, fly between Nairobi and the various camps, which have small runways in strategic locations. The pilots radio ahead and the locals zoom up and down the runway on motorcycles to make sure no animals are strolling along in the path of the plane.
Jerry, that's something I wish we had old film of!
DeleteI also remember arriving in a new city using my Eurail or Britrail pass in the 1980s, and going to the train station visitor's booth to find a place to stay for the night. Now, I use apps like Expedia or Klook for Asia to book hotels, publc transit passes & attractions passes ahead of time. So much easier.
ReplyDeleteThe visitor's booth, and then figuring out how to call on the pay phone to make sure the room was still available!
DeleteYes, such carefree & innocent times! I am much more of a travel planner now re: accommosations.
DeleteOh my--does your post bring back memories of my semester abroad in London in 1987! I think I only talked to my parents 3x on the phone that semester because it was so pricey--and student budgets being what they are, I tended to write, but also infrequently. My suitcases were ridiculously large tippy things (remember those dumb little wheels and leash-like pull strap??) I've been thinking about that semester more than usual because I just penned a blog post about travel and I have this crazy great photo of me at the departure gate WITH my parents saying goodbye. Things have sure changed!! What a fun post!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Valerie, and I'm glad it brings back some memories for you!
DeleteMy parents were very traditional so I didn't get to roam around Europe. Ack. Paper plane tickets I well remember. What a pain! Travelers checks. We must have been thoroughly indoctrinated because we'd get them even for a domestic vacation. Stores didn't always want to take them. Credit cards and ATMs are a blessing. Our one snafu was when we were in Spain. The ATM showed only numbers on the buttons. At that time our ID/password was set up as letters, not numbers.
ReplyDeleteOops, that does sound like a snafu, Pat!
DeleteI watched several of the old Karl Malden ads for Travelers Cheques, and they sure made it seem as if the world was teeming with pickpockets eager to lift an unsuspecting tourist's cash!
JULIA: How exciting for you that Youngest is coming home for a visit. Studying at the Hague sounds wonderful to me! This is going to be a long comment!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely remember the American Express cheques! Airmail envelopes!
There are several differences in late 20th century and early 21st century for me.
When I went to Oxford in the early 1990s, I remember that I asked someone at a dress shop to send a fax for me to let my family know that I arrived since the B&B where I was staying did Not have a fax. Believe it or not, my family received my postcards BEFORE the fax arrived! I did not know who to ask to send a fax for me. Yes, I gave them money to cover the cost of sending a fax. At that time, there were International Calling cards for Hearing people! I remember an American friend writing a check in American dollars at the Currency exchange window in England. I used traveller's cheques in the British pound, which I was able to get at a foreign exchange in the States before leaving for England. As I recall, the Eurostar train did not exist yet. I took the train all over the UK. I remember receiving airmail envelopes from family while I was at Oxford. I remember the paper tickets for flying on the plane to England and again to Europe. I remember the Eurail pass when travelling in Europe. I also had a BritRail for travelling in the UK.
In the 2000s, when I went back to the UK and Europe, I had a mobile phone and I could send texts to my family every day! I knew about the Euro because my college boyfriend mentioned that there was a discussion of a "United States of Europe", including the Euro money. I remember using the Pound in the UK, the Euro in Europe, though they were still using francs in Switzerland! I still collected postcards! And sent postcards. I am trying to recall if the American Express cheques were still available. I remember taking the Eurostar train from England to France! I would say it was better because it was easier for me, as a Deaf person, to contact my family and friends using my mobile phone with the SMS text capability. I remember using an Eurail pass travelling in Europe after I finished travelling with my tour group, which was by coach bus.
Oh, this if fun, Julia! Memories! I went to Europe for the first time with my parents in '76, Britrail in the UK, Eurail in Europe. Frommer's--was it really $10 a Day? Then the next year I went to Britain by myself for 6 weeks--I remember thinking it surely couldn't rain much in June, ha ha. I had a bus pass rather than Britrail, because you could get to little villages on the bus that you couldn't reach on the train. I'm thinking my suitcase must have had some kind of wheels. I can't imagine that I actually CARRIED it everywhere. So many bad B&Bs, lots of bad meals, too. But, oh, some of both were fabulous, and England and Scotland, even in the rain, made my heart hurt. I never got over that!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in England in 1990 during the mad cow epidemic, we ate lots of vegetables. I was amazed by how delicious the plant based foods were!
DeleteI remember flying to the Bahamas for Spring Break in the late 80's (first flight w/o parentals) and the back of the plane was the smoker's section? It boggles!!!!
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking about the US/UK flights I made for many years, and how horrible the smoke was. 10 hours! And the endless free alcohol! So many obnoxious drunks. I'll chalk two up for progress.
DeleteDefinitely remember the smoking on the plane going to and from the UK in 1990! I got sick! And the pubs too! Only places where we could eat without inhaling cigarette smoke were the cafes that were part of the churches.
DeleteI don't miss the smoking. But when I flew from Toronto-London Gatwick in the 1980s on now defunct Wardair, I was spoiled. Economy class ticket but they served us steak on Royal Doulton china! And traditional afternoon tea. Bliss.
DeleteI do not miss the smoking either! Grace, the Wardair sounds similar to when I flew on Virgin airlines from SFO to London. I also was able to watch a foreign film with English subtitles! At that time, we did not have streaming videos on the iPad, which had not been invented yet either....
DeleteHow wonderful that Youngest is coming home for a visit! I know you both will be so happy to see each other. I'm just having a hard time believing that Virginia is old enough to be in grad school. I'm not surprised that she is independent and confident enough to take on the great adventures she's having. After all, you and Ross raised her.
ReplyDeleteI spent most of my senior year in high school living in Germany, and we traveled everywhere. What I remember was how easy and carefree it was – – we just went anywhere we wanted, and it felt very free and nothing was ominous or dangerous or threatening. We didn’t really worry about anything. Except – – when we went to East Berlin, but that’s another story.
ReplyDeleteAnd I was always doing currency calculations in my head.
It’s astonishing how different the world is now.
After seeing your shared images in your article I realized your article is informative. That's why I will read your blog after free from my Rhode Island bus trip.
ReplyDelete